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The Sunny Side Up of Fry's
Rossman goes in search of the technology epicenter of the universe
By Brian D. Rossman
Where is the nerve center of Silicon Valley? While the international media draw attention to our community, the eye of the high-tech hurricane has been clearly overlooked. Seizing the opportunity for a Pulitzer by discovering this secret, I embarked upon my destination as if I were looking for a needle in a haystack--or in modern terms, a chip in a wafer fab.
Being a native son, my internal compass sent me back to Campbell. Although Gertrude Stein once said, "There is no there there" when referring to our East Bay neighbor, Oakland, clearly there is a "there" here. The path leads directly to a Silicon Valley institution, Fry's Electronics.
John, William and David Fry built their first electronics superstore in 1985 with the $3 million given to them by their father, Charles Fry, who founded Fry's Food Stores in the 1950s. (He sold it for about $14 million in 1972.) Since then, Fry's Electronics has grown to 16 stores across the country with locations in Arizona, Oregon and Texas. John Fry is the company's chief executive officer. William runs the day-to-day operations. David overseas the extensive information technology systems.
With that historical context in mind, I grabbed a pen and a notepad (the original palm appliance) and headed to our local fortress, a tomb-shaped, peach-colored penitentiary (purposely built in that likeness by a designer formerly of George Lucas' film production company).
Don't be fooled by its Indiana Jones looks--it is built with security in mind. Above the displays are perched countless security cameras to monitor consumer and employee theft. They, no doubt, stood focused on my destination, the Valley's epicenter.
I found a man loitering between the soundtrack CDs and the clearance display of Jar Jar Binks action figures and asked whether he could point me in the direction of the technology center of the universe. Vinnie the Vendor whipped out his personal digital assistant in a graceful sweeping motion reminiscent of a master swordsman from ancient times. Coupled with his determined gaze and forward movement, suddenly I felt that I had hit paydirt. I was going to be directed to Nirvana (and not the one in the rock & roll category). However, to Vinnie, every visitor to Fry's was a potential client. By initiating a conversation, I had fallen into his trap. Now I was obliged to view his PowerPoint presentation, even though this participation was eating away at my precious research minutes.
I broke free as a crowd of teenagers headed for the Ricky Martin section. Living La Vida Loca, I hid from Vinnie near the digital cameras and washing machines. Apparently, my cover was quite successful, as I was constantly interrupted by patrons desperate for customer service. Unbeknown to me, receding hairline columnists clad in red shirts are often mistaken for Fry's managers.
I continued my search near a toy display, conveniently located in the middle of the security software section. Pokémon and firewall protection--someone a lot smarter than me must have placed them together due to some latent symmetry. I wanted to find out why. I felt "the need for greed." (Regis: What is the translation of Pokémon? Fry's employee: Pocket monster. Regis: Is that your final answer? Employee: Yes. Regis: Are you sure? Employee: Stop trying to trick me, you Hollywood Squares reject!) Mystery solved. Apparently, some monsters are dragons; some dragons breathe fire; all firewalls stop fire. Bingo!
After picking up my solar calculator, a Dilbert T-shirt, a PC World magazine and some Corn Nuts, I was ready to conclude my journey with one last-ditch effort. I approached my paddle-waving cashier.
"Where is the center of Silicon Valley?" I asked. After three minutes of her yelling the mantra, "Check. Manager. Help!" I decided to place her in the undecided category.
Much like the members of the United Nations, the employees at Fry's are good-natured, well-intentioned and quite active in their attempts to assist. Yet, somehow, the results, in both cases, always seem to fall a bit short of their stated goal--much like my quest. No Pulitzer, but I am richer for the experience, if poorer in the wallet.
Contact Brian at bdrlaw@bigfoot.com.
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Campbell, California
